“If you want to succeed, you’d better be selling aspirin rather than vitamins. Vitamins are nice; they’re healthy. But aspirin cures your pain; it’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.”
It makes me think stuff we push as churches. With a life-saving objective, we jump ahead and answer questions people aren’t asking YET. Which doesn’t save anyone. It actually interrupts the life-saving process.
Next steps are highly personal. Programs are just environments where SOME people can find SOME of the answers. They are not THE answer. What’s the issue? That’s what we need to communicate. My buddy Nate Baird said it best…
Chevrolet has several different types of automobiles. When they want to communicate tough and dependable, they usually advertise the Silverado with a commercial of hard-hats, construction sites, and dropping heavy loads into the bed of the truck. When they want to communicate fast and sporty, the Camero is the king as it speeds through a closed-course making tight turns. When it becomes strategic for them to communicate “going green,” they have hybrids and crossovers that will do the trick.
The idea is not creating the car, the idea is communicating to buyers that they care about the issues the public cares about.
The deliverable (e.g., newsletter, event, postcard, class, etc.) is not the idea. The idea is communicating we care about the issues you care about. How do you communicate about stuff like:
- Spiritual isolation– the worst kind of need that happens with nobody else around.
- Fractured families– distorted definitions of heroes and lack of role models.
- Economic and social depression– lack of dignity, education and resources.
We’re trying. Here’s our call to action this Christmas season…
